Ring Laser Gyro (“RLG”) devices are a measurement tool used to calculate the angular rotation around a specified axis. A RLG measures the angular rotation around a specified axis by splitting a polarized laser beam in opposite directions within an enclosed cavity and measuring the combined light intensity of the beams. Typically, a RLG uses PIN photodiodes to monitor laser intensity of the counter propagating beams and subsequently determine the angular rotation.
These RLG systems are on occasion required to operate in harsh radiation environments that can adversely affect the electronic components of the RLG systems. In such environments where prompt dose radiation events may arise, circumvent and recovery procedures in the RLG system that undo the affects of the event, such as, providing charge bleed off paths or initiating a total circumvention of power and subsequent recovery, are necessary. To trigger these recovery procedures, it is often necessary to know of an event's occurrence and location within the RLG system in order to undo the affects of the event on the electronic components of the RLG system.
Typically, radiation detectors are used to determine when and where a radiation event occurred and to trigger the proper recovery procedures within the system. A typical radiation detector detects radiation events by monitoring the current passing through a photodiode. The radiation detector determines that a radiation event has occurred when a large amplitude transient current, inherent to prompt radiation events, is observed to have passed through the photodiode. However, conventional radiation detectors are expensive relative to the low cost of RLG systems. Further, due to market demands, housings for RLG systems are physically very small and the addition of a radiation detector would require a substantial increase in the physical size of the housing.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an inexpensive and spatially small radiation event detector.